The present is directed to a novel combination of an appliance with a frozen dough that is topped by sauce to allow the dough which must be heated and browned to be browned by a microwave while cooking the sauce. Heretofore this major problem has been unsolved so that pizza pies have not generally been available in a frozen condition and yet capable of being reconstituted in a microwave oven to produce an appetizing end result. For that reason, pizza pies from quality producers have been packaged and sold without a cooking pan for placement on a metal pan which is to be placed into a conventional convection oven. Only in this way was it possible to obtain the desired appearance and taste. However, convection cooking requires a substantially long heating time to reconstitute the frozen pizza pie into an acceptable food entree. With the advent of microwave cooking of frozen foodstuffs and general availability of such ovens, microwave cooking has become overwhelmingly demanded by the consuming public. Consequently, manufacturers of quality pizza pies and other crusted food items, or foodstuff, have been seeking an acceptable vehicle for manufacturing frozen pizza pies, transporting them in an inexpensive carton for display at a retail outlet and then for reconstitution by a microwave oven in a cooking time drastically less than the time required for baking the pizza pie in a conventional convection oven.
So far, these efforts to produce a microwave, heatable pizza pie in an inexpensive transporting arrangement have generally eluded the manufacturers of pizza pies. As an attempt to overcome this problem, some pies have been prebaked so that the crust is browned and then sold in a plastic container which can be heated in a microwave oven. This is nothing more than warming or reheating a previously cooked pie and does not solve the problem and produce the end result of an uncooked pie being baked and browned by a microwave oven. In addition, prebaking or partial baking of the pizza pie tends to cause separation of the sauce from the crust during shipment and/or reconstitution. Some pies have substances placed on the crust to bring the crust to the desire cooked appearance.
The various patents incorporated by reference herein illustrate the extent to which major manufacturers are attempting to utilize microwave ovens for reconstituting foodstuffs of various types which involve browning and other localized heating. None of these prior art patents, incorporated for background information, teach the novel combination of a pizza pie and appliance in accordance with the present invention; however, certain aspects of these patents are relevant to the background of the invention and these various aspects will be described briefly to illustrate the futility of prior patented concepts in solving the basic problem to which the present invention is directed. This apparent futility is carried over into the marketplace where the problem of cooking pizza pies has not been solved.
Turpin U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,757 relates to an early effort to develop a carton for a pizza pie having a cover with an inside surface which acts to shield the pizza from the transmission of microwave energy. Openings of a predetermined size in the cover enable transmission of the microwaves to heat the pizza while venting a vapor or steam biproduct. The pizza pie sits on an aluminum foil layer of a flexible or semi-flexible heating body which absorbs microwaves and will apparently transmit heat to the pizza pie by conduction through the aluminum layer to crisp or brown the bottom of the pizza pie. This construction is defective because it does not brown or crisp the outer edge surface of the pizza pie which does not contain sauce.
Brown U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,341 relates to a microwave carton which is particularly suitable for pizza pie. Venting of vapors generated within the carton during the heating is provided. However, there is no provision of a means to brown or crisp the outer edges of the pizza pie.
Maroszek U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,671 discloses a carton for a pizza pie including an interactive heater material for directing heat into the bottom surface of the pizza pie. This patent does not overcome the problem of the failure to selectively brown or crisp the edges of the dough.
Peleg U.S. Pat. No. 4,841,112 relates to the placement of a stiff susceptor on the upper surface of dough covering a pot pie in a microwave impervious receptacle. There is no suggestion of cooking a pizza pie with susceptors to brown and/or crisp the outer edge of the dough which is free of sauce.
Jaeger U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,482 relates to a sleeve surrounding the lower portion of a food product, such as a pizza, whereby the upper layer is cooked by radiant and microwave heating while the lower crust layer is heated primarily by high temperature conduction.